ABSTRACT
The first SP research project conducted over 800 surveys, some 40 interviews, and fieldwork to learn how much Mexicans in New York knew about the program, and how they knew. The survey provides an unusually detailed and geographically broad profile of Mexicans in New York. Unsurprisingly, most immigrants in New York knew very little about SP, and many were skeptical, but were interested in learning more. Our project created public service promotions to increase knowledge and use of SP, in the Consulate waiting room and via a 30,000 person text list, in Spanish language media, and via the explanations of project researchers. We coded these explanations as public service promotions, to capture their possible effects, which was the largest influence on knowledge about SP. Over the course of the study, knowledge of SP rose substantially. This increase suggests it would be possible to grow the use of SP, and that a key way to do so would be through individual outreach. The finding that Mexican immigrants in New York were rejecting SP because it was framed as a social right led to a second study, described in Chapter 3.
